Dr McKelvie and Ms Rice said over 40 Greens postcards calling for an increase to the welfare payment were signed during their visit. The party is campaigning for a $50 per week increase to the Newsatart allowance and to restore single parent payments cut by the current government.

“After rent 4,500 unemployed have as little as $17 a day for food, bills, and other expenses in the McMillan electorate,” Ms Rice said in a media release.

“Sole parents have been struggling with the cuts,” Dr McKelvie said.

“It’s not just the humiliating dive into poverty – they are being locked out of the workforce and that’s no way to help them get a job.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The Greens will also increase the allowance for over 750 young people living independently in McMillan, so they can concentrate on their studies and training, instead of worrying how to make ends meet.”

The candidates said the $9.2 billion plan would be paid for through changes to the mining tax.

As I speak to more and more single parents I am dismayed by the level of hardship and distress they are experiencing. Mostly mothers, they are facing tough choices between food, car insurance, electricity bills and being forced to sell assets like their home in order to make ends meet. These are not the conditions a caring society would tolerate and a caring government would create.